• 2002 In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, about 30 hard-line Serb nationalists prevented dozens of worshippers from attending an Anglican Christmas Eve church service that was to be held in a Serbian Orthodox chapel. Pro-Moscow Chechen leader murdered.Sayed-Amin Adizov, a construction company chief who also headed the Grozny chapter of the United Russia party, was killed as he rode in his truck Tuesday night, said the official.
• 2004 The worst earthquake in 40 years (and the third-largest ever) creates a huge tidal wave which kills 250,000 in Asia. •
2005 Benedict XVI issues his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, a meditation on human and divine love.
• 2006 James Brown,“The Godfather of Soul”, dies of heart failure; Hiroaki Hidaka, Japanese serial killer, and three other murderers are executed as Japan resumes capital punishment. Ethiopian jets bomb two airports in Somalia in a widening operation against the Islamic Courts Union.
• 2007 Afghanistan expels diplomats from the E.U. and U.N. Turkish forces raid Iraqi Kurdish insurgents. Mighty King Kong, Kenyan reggae musician, d. Riots erupt in Nepal between Pahadi and Madhesi townspeople.
• 2008 German navy releases Somali pirates, despite their attack on an Egyptian vessel. A state of emergency is declared in the Marshall Islands, due to widespread flooding. Harold Pinter, English playwright d. Eartha Kitt, American singer, d.
• 2009 “Underwear Bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan.
• 2013 In Argentina an attack by a school of palometas, a carnivorous type of piranha, injure 70 people bathing in the Parana River in Rosario. Seven children lose parts of their fingers or toes.
• 2014 At the Vatican, Femen protester and Ukrainian activist Yana Zhdanova shouts “God is woman” when she uncovers her chest in St. Peter’s Square and attempts to steal the Baby Jesus from the nativity scene. She is detained by police and will be released on December 27 with orders to never set foot again in Vatican City State.
• 2017 At the Vatican topless Femen activist Alisa Vinogradova tries to snatch the statue of the baby Jesus from the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square but is stopped by police as she grabs it.
• 2021 The James Webb Space Telescope is successfully launched using the Ariane 3 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.